Daily Archives: July 7, 2014

Although Jim and I have a Harley Davidson Road King, I never knew much about its history, until I decided to do some research on my own.

Apparently, the Harley Davidson Road King replaced the Electra Glide Sport. Each Harley Davidson motorcycle has a letter model and a model name. This may be a tad confusing, but those model designation numbers can be a big help if you want to trace your models lineage.

The first Harley Davidson Road King was introduced in 1994 and featured a windshield without the fairing and hard saddlebags. One of the Road Kings features was a retro headlight that was large and looked much like the 1960’s Big Twins. The first Harley Davidson Road King was a 60 horsepower motor with a fuel-injected Harley Davidson Road King being released in 1996. In 1999, every Harley Davidson Road King was equipped with a Twin Cam engine.

A decade later, Harley Davidson added a custom Road King to its lineup that was very similar to the Harley Davidson’s Electra-Glide Sport. Along with beach bar handlebars, the Custom Harley Davidson Road King also featured a low seat height at just 28.3”. The Custom was made through 2007 although Harley Davidson came out with a Twin Cam engine that same year.

In 2008, the company came out with a Road King Classic. The limited edition came with hard covered saddlebags, whitewalls and laced wheels. The Harley Davidson Road King also got a facelift with a new frame. The fuel capacity of the Harley Davidson Road King was also increased to six gallons.

I had no idea that the Harley Davidson Road King is used by over 3,500 police departments in the United States. It is also interesting to note that Hollywood used the Harley Davidson Road King in several films including Mystic River, The Jackal, The Manchurian Candidate, Marley and Me, and The Cat in the Hat.